About this Research Topic

Background

The rising costs of medicines is a major burden for healthcare systems and is already limiting access to innovative treatments worldwide. Governments, healthcare providers and payers constantly try to improve the sustainability of drug development, production, pricing and use of medicines. The aim of this research topic is to identify strategies and policies that can facilitate sustainable development and use of medicines as well as practical solutions to improve their cost-effectiveness. For this topic, we are also interested in alternative pricing strategies and financial arrangements, requisite changes in regulatory and legal frameworks to support sustainability, the potential role of registries, real-world evidence and biomarker development for clinical daily use.

The submissions (Original research/Reviews/Mini-reviews/Perspectives/Clinical Studies) may refer to, but are not limited to, manuscripts involving:

1. Dose-rounding, dose-banding or vial-sharing to minimise the wasting of expensive medicines
2. Alternative dosing strategies, such as tapering and/or increasing the dose-interval or shortening treatment duration
3. Boosting potency of drugs
4. The use of predictive biomarkers that can prevent mis-prescribing and overuse of therapies
5. Extrapolation of one of the strategies mentioned above (1-4) to other disease areas. We are also especially interested in disease-agnostic studies and approaches
6. Alternative pricing strategies and financial arrangements
7. Role of registries and real-world evidence in sustainable drugs use and development
8. Improvement of regulatory and legal frameworks and policies for sustainable medicine development
9. Addressing cost-effectiveness of medicines by efficient use of resources and improving processes
10. Sustainable development of medicines through Public private partnerships
11. Development of biomarkers for selection and monitoring of patients and therapies to ensure optimal (personalised) treatments
12. Addressing our conflicting interests: a substantial part of pharmaceutical companies is owned by public or semi-public investors (pension funds, state-owned banks etc.). As pension plan contributors and tax payers we benefit directly from the high prices of medicines, while at the same time access to the same medicines can be denied to us. How can we reshape the system?

Keywords: Pharmaceutical efficiency, pharmaceutical waste, dose-rounding, dose-banding, dosing strategies, predictive biomarkers

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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